Thaïs took a seat beside me, where sandbags reinforced the wall below the window. We were four stories high and back away from the edge of the district, but that meant nothing. The pressure was on for the military to recapture the half of Seisa currently in Lathraí control, because every minute we held out was another nail in the coffin of state power. Already similar uprisings were spreading in the south, though none as bloody as Seisa—yet.

I didn’t look over at her sudden arrival, still focused on field-stripping my rifle. They were mostly reliable, though jams were more and more frequent as the quality of ammunition degraded. Our best weapons and ammunition were those taken from the enemy, whose soldiers were the only thing in abundant supply. “Shouldn’t you be somewhere safer?” 

Thaïs laughed. “And where would that be?” She paused, unscrewing the top of her flask. “I suppose the hells are empty these days. Think I could open a new brothel there?”

“It’d probably be cooler.” The late summer sun beating down on Seisa was so punishing that even most of the fighting happened at night. I’d seen fighters from both sides pass out from heat exhaustion.

“Probably,” she agreed before taking a quick swig. She was also carrying a canteen, one of the good ones with a filter, but seemed far more interested in her hip flask at the moment. “You want some?”

I shook my head, carefully cleaning my rifle while I had the chance. Things were slow now even with the military’s crunch for time just because of the heat wave turning Seisa’s streets into an oven. Even during the night, you could burn flesh by touching the paving stones without cloth in the way. It was the hottest year on record—not even Seisa’s ocean breezes did much to cool it down. 

She unslung the canteen and slid it over to me. “Have some water, then.”

In that kind of heat, you could drink gallons in a day and still barely lose anything through your kidneys. Even we Lathraí, children of the deserts, felt it intensely. An offer of water was never to be passed up. “Thanks.” I sped up, finishing my cleaning before reassembling the rifle as quickly as I could while avoiding a mistake. I double-checked that everything was working before setting the weapon down.

Thaïs sighed and leaned back into the shade of the sandbags, stretching like a cat. “You’re getting pretty good at that.” 

I opened the canteen and tipped too fast for the shock of fresh, ice-cold water that hit me. I corrected and sputtered, dumping a mouthful’s worth down the front of my shirt. “It’s cold!” 

Thaïs laughed herself to gasping at my expression, holding her ribs with both hands. When I stared at her uncomprehendingly, she felt the need to explain with a simple comment: “Your face!”

Her good mood was infectious enough that I felt the invisible weight on my shoulders lifting for a moment. “Thaïs, how? We haven’t had power for anything besides radios for two weeks.”

She had the gall to wipe away tears. “I was trying to be nice. I guess it was more insulated than I thought. I wrapped it in one of those chemical ice packs before I came up here.” Thaïs grinned at me. “Looks like you’ve got more of a drinking problem than I do.” 

I looked down at my shirt, wiping some water off my chin. “I guess so.” Now that I knew what I was in for, I took a few deep drinks from the water. It was a wonderful relief from the heat. “What brings you my way, anyway?” 

Thaïs lost some of her teasing tone, settling into a more businesslike mentality. “You’re easier to find than Sostrate, so I figured I would give my report to you and hope you’ll pass it along. They’ve lost control of the river, at least mostly, so we can break the little siege we’re in. We’ve already gotten a couple of boats full of supplies. I figured…” She trailed off, distracted by something.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. 

“It’s really quiet, Karsa.” 

She was right. No firefights, no shelling, just a peaceful summer day. Even for the heat, that wasn’t normal. My muscles tensed. “What are they waiting for?” 

A sudden explosion split the air, louder than anything I’d ever heard before. Ears ringing, I grabbed my rifle and Thaïs, pulling her towards the stairs. That had been close enough that the building we were in might collapse, which meant getting out. She had the presence of mind to grab the canteen as well. 

Dozens of similar explosions went off, scattered across the districts we controlled. “What the hell is happening?” Thaïs shouted. 

The sky fell on Seisa like the hammer of a vengeful god.

We made it out to the street to see buildings shatter to pieces under the assault. We had dealt with barrages from tanks before, but this was mammoth in its scale. The goal was not to win; it was to obliterate.

Thaïs and I were caught between shattering hellfire and the battlefront itself. I threw an arm around her and pulled her down the main street, joining others who fled the destruction in a panic. There was only room for fear as more and more of the massive bombs fell. Some carried fire in their bellies, erupting into the white-hot flames of phosphorus on impact. 

We wound our scarves over our faces, the best guard against dust we had. Thaïs tugged me away from toxic smoke as I tried to find my sense of direction. On all sides, the buildings were demolished or flaming. I’m sure she was shouting my name, but I barely heard anything over cacophonous thunder and splintering glass.

I couldn’t tell you how long it lasted. I know only that our half of Seisa went from a conflicted but connected city to a hellscape in the space of what felt like a split second. Nowhere was safe. Nowhere. We careened from one devastation to the next, clinging to each other, until the pounding stopped.

I would never look at a blue sky the same way again. 

Thaïs shook beside me, reeling from the aftereffects just as I was. The heat made the dust stick to our bodies like paste. It was suffocating. Some people had plunged into the river to escape, but parts of it were burning with phosphorus and gas now, a brimstone not even water could extinguish. 

“I have to get back,” Thaïs chanted to herself. “I have to get back.” 

The sounds of a renewed offensive at the perimeter of our districts was barely audible after the chaos, but it was a sign that our revolution might not have long. As much as I wanted to run to Sostrate’s position and act as a reinforcement, I couldn’t just abandon Thaïs. 

“Let’s go,” I urged. I didn’t know where we were with the damage. All around, the streets broke up like the surface of a moon and enough dust-filled smoke hung in the air that the world was dim and alien. A red sun glared down at us as we threaded through the rubble-strewn alleys of South Harbor.

I knew we had made it when Thaïs stopped dead in her tracks, eyes fixing on the remnants of a familiar neon sign, shattered almost to pieces. A blast had devastated the entire block, probably close to a direct hit. What concussion hadn’t destroyed, fragmentation had ripped to pieces.

Thaïs made a strangled sound, staring at the wreckage of her life. She just froze. I understood: she was trying to process the end of her world. In the distance, I thought I could hear more fighting, though perhaps it was only the ringing of my ears. 

I grabbed her shoulder. “Thaïs, we have to go.” 

She looked at me. She had lost enough color in her face to look sickly and her eyes were wide from the shock. Her lips trembled like she wanted to speak, but nothing came out. It was the first time I ever saw her composure break.

“Thaïs, please. They need us to fight.” 

Those words seemed to reach her. She nodded and followed me, moving without really thinking. Together we ran and stumbled through the chaos towards the edge of our districts, where the fighting reached a fever pitch. It was less damaged just because it was closer to Ieró districts. Apparently the bombing run was designed to spare the real citizens and just target us.

By the time we reached them, Sostrate and the others were in forced retreat. No amount of desperation could entirely power through the shock and half our reinforcements had been in the areas hit the worst.

Sostrate panted heavily as she came to a stop around the corner of one of the few buildings completely undamaged. Her eyes brightened when she saw us and she limped closer, setting aside her rifle so she could pull us both into a tight hug. “I thought the worst. Thank God you are still alive.” 

I steadied her when she wobbled slightly. “Everything is gone. The gardens, our home, half our people.” 

Thaïs seemed to come back to herself, though her eyes were still haunted. “We cannot hold Seisa. If we retreat out of the city into more rural areas, we have a better chance of surviving.” 

Sostrate nodded and let out a pained sigh. “We can hold if you start evacuating people. The river is still navigable, yes?”

“Close to the edge, yes. We can get boats together and get as many people out as we can.” Thaïs seemed sturdier when she thought about what needed to be done.

I grabbed Sostrate’s shoulder. “I’m staying with you to fight.”

She shook her head. “I need to know there are people I can trust guiding our people to safety. You and Thaïs are the only ones who can keep the spark going in defeat. I have faith in you.” She picked up her rifle and flashed me a quick smile. “I will see you both again.”

“I’m not leaving you.” 

She gave me a firm squeeze on my shoulder. “The revolution cannot die here, Karsa. It matters more than anything, certainly more than me. Go with God.” 

I knew this was goodbye forever, or at least until we see each other again in death. I caught Sostrate’s hand and bowed my head, touching my forehead to her knuckles. It was a gesture with many meanings. The tears forming didn’t quite fall. “Go with God, Sostrate.” 

“Take good care of each other.” She gave my hand a squeeze and then pulled away. In a moment, she was gone, obscured from view by a drifting dust cloud. Just like that, Sostrate vanished from my life.

I saw my own sorrow reflected in Thaïs’s eyes. “We have to hurry,” she said quietly. 

“I know.”

Together, we sprinted back into the chaos, this time to round up as many as we could. There was no way we could save those trapped by falling rubble, not with the military beating at our last defenses. Mercifully, radios had survived and the order to retreat spread quickly through the devastation. 

We saved as many as we could, putting them on boats and hurrying upriver towards the Lathraí-dominated Heleós Province. There were enough of our fighters to handle the outposts outside Seisa, but we didn’t have long. There were so many people that many had to cling to the outside of boats or ride in life-rafts tied to the vessels. Some remained in Seisa by choice, to look for friends and relatives buried in the rubble.

I never saw what became of them, but you know, don’t you? That grave in the hills dug twenty feet deep, bodies piled like cordwood is their home now. I wonder if Sostrate is there, or if hers was one of the bodies strung up as an example.

I don’t know, and God forgive me, I don’t care. Dead is dead. We all end up in the dirt one way or another. I lost her either way.